Robert Plant Faked Throat Problems So He Could Watch Soccer
Robert Plant admitted that he used to fake throat problems so he could drop off Led Zeppelin tours to watch his soccer team play.
The singer is a lifelong fan of English professional team Wolverhampton Wanderers, and he’s an honorary president of the club, which was founded in 1889 and is listed as fifth in terms of total points gathered across all the league divisions it’s played in.
Asked about the ups and downs of touring life, Plant lightheartedly told The New Times in a new interview that “leaving England when my team is doing amazingly well. … In all my years of watching this football team, I’m thinking, ‘Why am I on tour now?’ There were a few times with Led Zeppelin where I mysteriously got a bad throat a few hours before the match, and was able to return to watch them play … and miraculously repair by the next day!”
Plant said in 2008 that he sometimes regarded supporting the Wolves as “masochism." "It's the nearest thing to actually walking under a bus,” he noted. “When we won the League Cup in 1974, it took me three days to get home from Wembley to Worcestershire. I haven't got a clue where I was. I know the Mayor of Wolverhampton received the team in official form, and I remember being there for a minute or two."
In the interview with Phoenix's The New Times, Plant said the most important lesson he learned from a lifetime on the road was “when to go home.” "Once a new artist receives a commercial response, there’s a magnificent network of hell that breaks out around them," he pointed out. "We were lucky back then. There was nothing premeditated, and we weren’t even aware, because the whole media circus didn’t exist. Our name was resonant, but we were invisible until we got to town to play.”
Plant is currently touring in support of latest solo album, Carry Fire, but he recently hinted there would be some kind of “celebration” to mark Led Zeppelin’s 50th anniversary. Asked for further details, he said, “It’s all up in the air. I’m looking forward to seeing the guys again soon one day. And not a stone will be unturned.”